Advocating the two state solution: the best bet?

We need to convince our governments and the EU to invest in a political strategy that reverses the destructive dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They need to understand that respect for international law is not a detail, but lies at the very heart of the conflict.

Nowadays,
it is not an easy task to be a staunch advocate of the two state solution. True,
there
is a near-universal consensus at the international level that a resolution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a viable and independent State of
Palestine living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel.[i]
However, far from the ideal solution, it is an
imperfect compromise. Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict begins with
accepting that no just outcome exists,[ii] as the PLO did when making a historic compromise and declaring Palestinian
independence on 22 percent of historical Palestine. Moreover, the days of the
two state solution are numbered. With every passing day, Israel undermines the
feasibility of a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders with its continued
settlement expansion.

Re-evaluating the solution

These
observations push an increasing number of advocates for the Palestinian cause
to plead for a single state. They argue that the struggle for Palestinian
self-determination is over and should be replaced by a civil rights struggle. In
their vision, the reality in the field and the failure to bring about a
Palestinian state necessitate a re-evaluation of the solution. The late Tony
Judt already called in 2003 for the bi-national state as an alternative.[iii] I argue that currently, there is really no feasible alternative to the two
state solution. It is the closest to a just and durable solution for both the
Palestinian and the Israeli people, even if we have to acknowledge that Israel’s
obliteration of the Green Line is close to irreversible and might inevitably
lead to one state.

However,
the dichotomy between the advocates of the two state solution and the single
state should not be overemphasised. What both groups share is a desire to end
the occupation and restore dignity, and they both rightly criticise Israel and
the international community for failing to put the Palestinian right to
self-determination into effect. The international community, including the
European Union, cannot be absolved from its responsibilities and the fact that
no advancement to the two state solution was made over the past two decades.
The EU's strategy was to convince Israel to let go of as much control as
possible, but it never put pressure on Israel to withdraw to the armistice line
of 1949. The premise was that Israel should not be forced into giving up what
it did not want to give up. The EU’s refusal to use its leverage by conditioning
its bilateral relations with Israel on the respect for international law has
sent a problematic signal of acquiescence to Israel. The EU should put the
respect for international law central, ensuring that both Israel and the
Palestinian armed groups stop violence against civilians.

Why abandon an internationally accepted solution?

The failure to realize a Palestinian state within
the pre-1967 borders should not make us throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The Palestinians cannot forsake their right to self-determination because
Israel is blocking it and because the international community is failing to
uphold it. The Palestinians have been struggling for decades for recognition of
this right, which is enshrined in international law and confirmed in the
resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations. The “land for peace”
principle underlying the peace process is also based on Security Council
resolution 242 and the international prohibition on the acquisition of land by
force. Long-time observers like the French journalist Dominique Vidal recall
the sixties when the majority of the public opinion in the West supported
Israel unconditionally and simply ignored the Palestinians;[iv] in contrast, today, there
is worldwide support for the two state solution. As Tony Klug, a veteran
English writer and analyst, states “it would be strange to abort the idea and
start all over again with a different idea, and a controversial one.”

Moreover, there is little support among
Palestinians and Israelis for the one-state idea, which has been around since the
beginning of the twentieth century.[v] The Israeli population
sees it as destructive, as it would have to surrender its idea of the “Jewish
state”. In view of the current power balance and the importance of the concept
of the Jewish state to the majority of the Israeli population, it is hard to
conceive that Israeli Jews would be willing to give up the State of Israel and
become a minority. It is not guaranteed
either that the majority of the Palestinian population is comfortable with the
idea of living in a single state. Over forty years of occupation and violations
of international law have made them sceptical towards the idea of living with
Israelis, whom they mostly meet as settlers and soldiers. Even if a lot of
Palestinians are not hostile to one state, they estimate that the two-state
solution is a necessary first step. Furthermore, how could it be assured that a
single state would not be tantamount to the continuation of the current
situation? The battle for equal rights would be a long and extremely difficult
one.[vi] We only need to look at
the discrimination of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to understand this.

Even if the political and diplomatic efforts of
the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) did not succeed in bringing about
a Palestinian state, their merit cannot be underestimated. The PLO did manage
to convince the majority of the international community of the need of an
independent state within the pre-1967 borders. At the same time, we need to
acknowledge that the PLO has not handled the negotiations with Israel
particularly well. This was confirmed again by the “Palestine Papers”, the
diplomatic documents that were leaked in the spring of 2011. They illustrate to
what degree the Palestinian leadership was willing to further compromise on its
historic compromise, especially with regard to East Jerusalem, without guarantees
from Israel. In the light of the armed groups’ violence against Israeli
civilians, the Palestinian Authority was eager to prove that it was a partner
for peace and underestimated the complexities of negotiations with an unwilling
partner. It also did not sufficiently address the problem of the internal
division, thus further weakening the Palestinian position on the international
level.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is primarily a
territorial conflict, even if it is multifaceted as all conflicts are.
Therefore it is hardly conceivable that there is another way out of the
deadlock than a solution that allows each people to exercise its right to
self-determination in its state. The question is how to stop Israel from
further eroding the two-state solution. Its destructive policies have given rise
to a worrisome paradox - even if the two-state solution is currently the only
game in town, and the majority of the Palestinians support it, they no longer
believe it is possible to achieve. The supporters of the single state have a
straightforward answer to solve this paradox: a paradigm shift. There is another
easy answer: increasing the pressure on Israel. However, as we have witnessed
over the past two decades, the political will among the main international
players: the US and the EU, is lacking. The question then is, how can we make
our governments understand that not only is the time ticking for the two state
solution, but that they are responsible for the deadlock?

Addressing the failure of the international community

The mixed international reactions to the
Palestinian UN initiative in September prove once again, how difficult it is
for the international community to come to terms with the Palestinian state and
to remind Israel of its commitments. Even if Israel failed to recognise the
Palestinian right to self-determination when Arafat recognised Israel in 1993,[vii] it agreed to the “land
for peace” formula and acknowledged the need for a Palestinian state. The EU recognized the Palestinian
right to self-determination in 1980 and has reaffirmed this right since. Nowadays,
policy makers like to refer to the Council Conclusions of 2009. In this document
the EU reaffirmed its position: no changes to the 1967 borders except those
agreed upon by the two parties, and Jerusalem as the future capital of two
States.[viii] Even the position of the United States has
evolved, with US President Obama expressing his desire in the General Assembly
of September 2010 to see a Palestinian state by September 2011. However,
confronted with Israel’s unwillingness to respect its obligations, the
international community continues to focus on the process and refuses to
increase the pressure on Israel. This was illustrated once more by the
Quartet’s position in September, when it called for resuming the negotiations
without preconditions, ignoring the PA’s objections to continuing negotiations
without a settlement freeze.

From the beginning of the peace process, the international community
decided not to exert pressure on Israel in order not to spoil the peace
process. It was accepted that Israel should not to be pressured to give up
physical control over the occupied Palestinian territory. The countries of the
international community decided not to pursue a rights-based approach, but to
be pragmatic, in order to maintain Israel's cooperation. The decision not to
ensure Israel’s respect for international humanitarian law and human rights contributed
to a climate of the absence of the rule
of law. It was not conceived that in order to achieve change and work towards
a two-state solution, it was necessary to transform the conduct of both sides.

International aid delivery is a good example of the problematic
involvement of the international community. Over the last decades,
international donors have invested heavily in Palestinian state-building
efforts: over $ 10 billion since 1993. However, Palestinian
state-building turned out to be more problematic than donors had anticipated.
Israel's ongoing occupation undermined the European Union's hoped-for transitional
scenario, where the Palestinian Authority would successfully establish its
authority, become an effective administrator and provider of public services, and
gain popular legitimacy. However, the international donor community did not
sufficiently address the grave consequences: de-development and the failure of
Palestinian state-building arising from Israel's
continued abuse of its effective control. The aid efforts were based on
assumptions that did not correspond to the realities in the field. The premise
was that Israel would respect its duties as an occupying power. When faced with
Israel’s refusal to cooperate, donors chose to hold on to their premises, and
to base assistance on them.

Concretely, the EU helped to build the best possible institutions under
conditions in which the Palestinian government had no functional sovereignty.
However, by focussing primarily on Palestinian state-building, the EU played
into Israel's strategy. It did not tackle the issue of Israel's effective
control and it even accommodated Israel's violations of international
humanitarian law, which lie at the heart of the Palestinian de-development. In
doing so it wanted to make progress in some fields where it could make a
difference, such as the Palestinian economy and the removal of barriers to
external trade. Even if the EU made considerable progress in state-building,
this was not sufficient since Israel was working against the two-state
solution.

What we need to re-evaluate is the role of the
international community and how it could be more constructive. We need to
convince our governments and the EU to invest in a political strategy that
reverses the destructive dynamics on the ground. They need to understand that
respect for international law is not a detail, but lies at the very heart of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[i] Casalin Deborah, With or without a state, CIDSE, September
2011, www.cidse.org.

Brigitte Herremans is the Middle East policy officer for Broederlijk
Delen and Pax Christi Flanders. She conducts advocacy at the Belgian and
European level on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a rights based
approach. Since the start of the Arab revolutions, she has closely
followed the situation in Syria. She regularly comments in the Belgian
media on issues such as human rights and civil society activism.

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